Chapter 3 : Running Away Isn’t an Option
Chapter 3: Running Away Isn’t an Option
【Congratulations to the host for obtaining the Silver Fruit. You have gained 100 Luck from the condensed essence of the Silver Fruit.】
Su Xiao froze. He hadn’t expected the system to give a notification at a moment like this. I obtained the Silver Fruit? Then could he still hand it over to someone else?
His mind raced with the thought, but he didn’t have time to hesitate. He had to deal with the crisis in front of him.
The little fox showed an oddly human-like expression. Su Xiao moved his paw and pushed the Silver Fruit toward Bai Yiyi’s hand, completely ignoring the stunned look on her face. He looked like a delivery guy who had braved wind and rain for his job, utterly calm and professional, as he muttered out loud, “Express delivery! Serving the whole land with integrity. Your Silver Fruit has arrived, please sign for it.”
That single action completely stunned the half-demon Bai Yiyi. She had imagined a thousand possible scenarios, but never the thousand-and-first one happening.
“Miss, don’t forget to leave a five-star review!” Su Xiao added the line as an afterthought. While speaking, he waved casually, yet his body quietly moved in the opposite direction.
Bai Yiyi stared at the Silver Fruit that had rolled to her side, her mind still not catching up. The Silver Fruit she had struggled so hard to obtain… was now just handed to her like this?
Meanwhile, Su Xiao took advantage of her momentary distraction and slowly crept toward a nearby patch of grass, preparing to jump into it.
“Stop! Don’t run that way!”
Her voice was clear and pleasant, carried by the wind to Su Xiao’s ears, like the whisper of death.
Hearing this, Su Xiao obviously had no intention of stopping. By now he had already put some distance between them. If he ran a little farther and dove into the grass, his small body might give him a chance to escape. Besides, he had handed over the Silver Fruit, which should reduce her desire to chase him down desperately. That had been his plan all along.
But he had underestimated Bai Yiyi.
In just a short moment, she had already snapped back to her senses.
Su Xiao felt a powerful gust of wind sweep up behind him. In the next instant, a flash of apricot-yellow shot past him and landed easily in front of his path.
“Miss, the delivery has already reached your doorstep. You wouldn’t give me a bad review, right? At least leave me a way to live!” Su Xiao cried miserably, almost despairing.
Fortunately, he had deliberately handed over the Silver Fruit earlier precisely to give himself a moral excuse, a reason to beg pitifully for his life. It was a kind of strategy: placing hope in the other party’s conscience. Not a method he liked, but when your strength was inferior, it was the last struggle available to him.
He hadn’t put all his faith in the system’s advice, and sure enough, the system had betrayed him. It suggested running.
But he couldn’t outrun her!
This is it. I’m really done for.
While despairing, Su Xiao quietly gathered the spiritual power inside his body. Since waking up, he had gradually sensed this energy within himself. He was certain it was the spiritual power mentioned by the system. He didn’t have much of it, but it should be enough to cast Fox Fire a few times.
As for his innate ability, Fox Fire, Su Xiao didn’t know much about it. Everything he understood came from the information that had mysteriously appeared in his mind.
But waiting for death was not his style. If death was inevitable, then he would fight with everything he had.
Su Xiao prepared to unleash Fox Fire.
But Bai Yiyi’s reaction surprised him. She stood in front of him, all four limbs planted firmly on the ground. Her bright yellow tail, streaked with white patterns, stood straight up.
Yet she had her back to Su Xiao.
Instead, she bared her fangs at a patch of grass about half a person’s height away, her face twisted into a fierce snarl as she let out a threatening growl.
“Grrraa!”
“She’s… warning something?”
Su Xiao quickly realized that the catgirl half-demon wasn’t targeting him at all. She was issuing a warning.
There was danger in the grass.
Su Xiao’s eyelids twitched violently. Just moments ago, he had planned to hide in that exact patch of grass. If Bai Yiyi hadn’t stopped him… Wouldn’t that mean he’d have escaped the tiger’s den only to fall into a wolf’s lair?
Cold sweat spread across the fur on Su Xiao’s back. Looking at the grass now, he felt only deep wariness.
Unknown dangers were always the most terrifying.
Watching the catgirl’s raised tail and defensive posture, Su Xiao realized something: if she hadn’t stopped him earlier, who knew what would have happened? Had his earlier actions produced some kind of effect?
He felt both surprised and confused. Among humans, such behavior would be hard to understand.
But then he remembered, she wasn’t human at all. She was a demon. A half-demon.
“Maybe I need to change the way I think about things,” Su Xiao silently warned himself. “If I keep viewing everything from a human perspective, I’ll keep making wrong judgments.”
This time, he had simply been lucky.
Just then, the grass rustled violently.
“Damn half-demon! You’ve trespassed into the territory of the lord of Mount Qi and even tried to steal the lord’s treasure!”
The sound was a strange vibrating noise, but Su Xiao could somehow understand it.
Bai Yiyi, however, completely ignored the shout. Her claws dug into the soil, wind howling around her body. In the next instant, she launched a lightning-fast attack. Her speed was terrifying. Su Xiao could only see afterimages.
“Damn half-demon! You will pay for this! Other spirits will arrive soon. When they do, you won’t be able to escape even if you grow wings!”
With that roar, the creature hiding in the grass finally revealed itself.
Su Xiao swore he had never seen anything like it before.
It was a creature wrapped entirely in vines. Countless twisting vines covered its true form. Several thick tendrils whipped through the air, clashing constantly with Bai Yiyi.
Using the wind to her advantage, Bai Yiyi moved like a blade carried by a storm. Her claws were as sharp as knives, her body as swift as the wind. She dodged the vine creature’s strikes again and again, occasionally finding chances to close in. Her claws tore through the vines, splashing out a red liquid, whether it was blood or something else, Su Xiao couldn’t tell.
But at the same time, the creature’s regeneration was astonishing.
Su Xiao watched with his own eyes as the severed vines healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.
【Ancient Vine Wraith: Refined Spirit-level demon specter. A thousand-year-old vine that captures wandering souls and forms a symbiotic demonic entity. Danger level: half star. Recommendation: Host should surround himself with Fox Fire.】
Another Refined Spirit-level creature.
Su Xiao’s eyelids twitched again.
According to the system, this Ancient Vine Wraith was the same level as Bai Yiyi, a Refined Spirit-level entity. The difference was that Bai Yiyi was a half-demon, while this thing was classified as a demon specter.
Meanwhile, the battle between Bai Yiyi and the Vine Wraith was gradually tilting in her favor.
Su Xiao wasn’t surprised.
“According to the system’s danger ratings, the White-Striped Tiger half-demon is one star, while the Vine Wraith is only half a star. So from my perspective, the catgirl is still more dangerous. Still, even though she has the advantage, this Vine Wraith clearly specializes in regeneration. If it can’t be killed quickly, it’ll fight endlessly.”
Su Xiao quickly grasped the combat styles of the two Refined Spirit creatures.
Bai Yiyi’s fighting style was bold and aggressive. Her claws and fangs were incredibly sharp, and her control over wind made her unbelievably agile. She was a terrifying opponent.
But the Vine Wraith’s vines created powerful interference, making it extremely difficult to get close. On top of that, it possessed incredible regenerative abilities.
Su Xiao couldn’t help but wonder whether the specter hidden inside those vines was named “Little Cockroach” or something.
It suddenly occurred to him that the Vine Wraith had probably been waiting for the Silver Fruit to ripen so it could claim the spirit fruit, but Bai Yiyi had appeared halfway and ruined its plan.
Thinking about that made Su Xiao shudder. If Bai Yiyi hadn’t appeared… If he had tried to pick the Silver Fruit while the Vine Wraith was still hiding…
He didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened.
“This can’t drag on any longer. If this continues, the half-demon catgirl might get worn down.”
Right now, he actually had the best possible option: sneak away while the two demons were fighting. At a moment like this, neither of them would have spare attention to care about a tiny demonic beast like him.
But Su Xiao sighed. “Running away isn’t an option… there’s such a thing as honor in the jianghu.”
And with that, he made his decision.